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Friday, February 13, 2015

HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 2/13/15: SPECIAL EDITION

Dear friends,

Below you will find a personal letter from me to the
homeless community that I passed out on last night’s driveout. I know some of
you work with homeless people, so I encourage you to print out the letter and
share it with your homeless friends and clients, since we never see everybody on
any one driveout. In March I will be reviving the Home Van Newsletter and
telling you more about what we are doing and how people can participate. In the
meantime, I want all our homeless friends to know that we are still going to be
here for them, except in a different way, and I want them to know how much they
have meant to me and how much they have given me.

As
of March 1, when the Bo Diddley Community Plaza is shut down for remodeling, the
Home Van is going to change from doing driveouts to being a food pantry for
homeless people only.Our food pantry
will be open every Wednesday afternoon from 1-5 and every Thursday from 10 a.m.
to 5 p.m., except for the first week of the month.Even on five Thursday months, we will be open
the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Thursday
of each week and on the preceding Wednesday afternoon.Our

house is at 307 SE 6th Street.Many of you have been there.Many of you also have my phone number, in
case of emergencies.It is
352-372-4825.So we will

continue to be here for you, except in a different
way.

The money we save by ending the driveouts we are going
to put into getting tents and tarps so people can move out to Dignity
Village.I know some of you have
beautiful, well-established campsites and are under no threat of eviction at
this time.You will most likely choose
to stay where you are and pick up supplies at our food pantry.Those of you who stay in the downtown area
may be facing very hard times with the closing of the plaza and perhaps even
more efforts on the part of the authorities to remove homeless people from the
downtown area.I am convinced that you
will be much better off at Dignity Village, where you will be within easy
walking distance of hot meals, water, showers, laundry facilities, and other
services.Dignity Village is not perfect
but some very good people are working hard to make it into a good place with
self-governance and safety from eviction and other threats.You can help make that happen.

We are going to miss doing these driveouts.I will admit to you, my dear friends, that
some of this is old age.I am fast
approaching 70 and have been doing these driveouts for almost 13 years.I’m tired and need to take life easier.But I also think that supporting Dignity
Village is the right thing to do.

Finally, and most importantly, I want to thank all of
you for all you have done for me.You
have done more for me than I have done for you.I am not the same person I was when I started doing these driveouts.I have learned more about love, courage,
compassion, patience and faith from you in these 13 years than in the whole rest
of my life.At the beginning, I was
mainly concerned with myself, and was even someone who would complain about
having to do housework.I didn’t know
that God had blessed me beyond measure with a house to live in.I learned that, and so much more, from you,
my dear and wonderful friends.

About Me

I'm a 13th-generation Vermonter who grew up in North Bennington. Now I live in Florida, where I coordinate an outreach mission, part of Citizens for Social Justice, which delivers food, clothing, friendship, and other necessities of life to homeless people in Gainesville. I write an email newsletter, with stories about our homeles friends. To read highlights from the Home Van Journal, visit my other blog, http://homevan.blogspot.com/